This website or its third-party tools use cookies which are necessary to its functioning and required to improve your experience. By clicking the consent button, you agree to allow the site to use, collect and/or store cookies.

It’s Time to Reset Your Freelance Expectations — With Some Numbers

I know when I got going, I had ZERO idea of what this life would be like.

I had to cobble together my ideas of what ‘normal’ and ‘possible’ looked like from podcasts, Facebook groups, and random conversations online. I want you to skip all that, so we’re going to talk about some reasonable expectations around your freelance career.

First off, let’s just get this out there…this is going to vary. Things can be drastically different depending on your skill, your career stage, and even your goals as a freelancer. But keep these numbers in mind as you shape your freelance career.

Ramp Up

18 months-2 years

This isn’t even close to a hard and fast number, but talk to freelancers and you’ll hear this a lot…

“It took me around a year and a half, two years to get my business going.”

There’s a little bit of support for that number though. This survey found that the average freelancer reaches their financial goals within 23 months.

I had the same experience. It was about two years before I stopped living in constant, rational fear that I could drop into financial ruin at any point in time — that’s why I don’t recommend that anyone quit their job and then start freelancing. It’s a slow build that takes time.

1.5-2x employed rates (but also it varies)

You’ll see some reports say that indie workers do just as well financially as employed and that the average annual income for independent pros is $69,100 (compared to a U.S. median household income of $59,039.)

Check out the distribution by skill here (page 25) and you’ll see that from virtual assistants to illustrators and marketing professionals, we’re all working with a range of possibilities.

Take me for example. I’m well on my way to making it into the six-figure category this year, but that’s mostly because I leveraged my experience. If I were still trying to make writing happen in my ‘passion’ niche? I’d definitely be on the lower end.

As a general guideline, you should be charging/earning twice what comparable employed work brings in. So for example, if a copywriter pulls in an average base salary of $60K, $90-120K is a comfortable goal for you.

Hours Worked

It’s up to you

This is another one that varies by skill (see page 40 here) but mostly it’s a lifestyle decision.

If you’re dead set on a particular niche and want to freelance to pay your bills, you might work more hours. If you’re like me and minimizing hours worked is important, you can adjust your niche and skill to get you closer to that goal.

That’s why I encourage people to set up marketing minimums. If you’re having business issues and aren’t hitting those, there’s a good chance that’s where your problem is. As a freelancer you have to work to get work, and if you aren’t, you probably aren’t working.

That said, the amount of marketing effort you put in should drop as your business matures.

When you start, expect to spend 100% of your time on marketing. That means prospecting, building your website and getting your LinkedIn and bidding site profiles going. It’s pretty common advice that after you set your ideal business hours, you should spend every free minute that’s not going to production and admin…on marketing.

At this point, I have half a day each week dedicated to marketing. I’ve shaved that back from a full day thanks to automation through ads, but I still spend a few minutes every morning on follow up and checking on prospects.

A New Perspective on Money

30% off the top and 50% variation

Most of us have a relationship with money that’s heavily influenced by employment.

We tend to think in even, regular distributions and we understand our income in a post-tax and post-benefit context.

That means our expectations are incompatible with independent work.

Depending on where you live, employers take care of some mix of taxes, health insurance, retirement AND chopping your income up into nice, neat, even little checks that you get on a regular basis (and then plan your phone bill, mortgage, and car payments around.)

All of that’s out the door as a freelancer.

In the U.S. you can expect that a good 25-30% of any money that comes in isn’t yours (that can be more once you factor in state and local taxes), but honestly the worst part really is the variability.

I still remember that first month I booked $17K worth of work. I was out here like

…and then the next month I did $5K. I was only working half the month, but still. That drop sobered me up real quick.